Worried About Shingles?

My Weekly’s favourite GP from TV and radio writes for you.

- Dr Sarah Jarvis

There are hundreds of viruses. Many cause rashes. But shingles is easy to spot – it only affects a strip on one side of your body and stops precisely in the midline at the front and back. But how do you protect yourself if you haven’t had it?

Usually you’re exposed to a virus (eg by breathing in a cold virus) and develop symptoms a few days later. Shingles is a bit different.

About 9 in 10 adults have had chickenpox, usually in childhood. This almost always makes you immune to catching it again; antibodies in your immune system fight it off.

But once you’ve recovered from chickenpox, the virus lies dormant in the nerve roots of your spine. You feel well and don’t know you have it unless it’s “reactivated”.